With the pubs opening in England, perhaps the country is finally returning to routines, even if the priorities are backwards. It’s a good time to have a June Review as my patterns are also changing. Schools aren’t operating fully on site, so I’m still working a hybrid of some days in school, some days from home. It’s been good to see some pupils, having started working face-to-face with them again in the last few weeks. However, despite not being able to fully attend school, I can go to the bar to buy some beer after work. All is good in the universe.
Pleasingly, I’ve managed to keep at the writing. However, I usually do well in June, writing in the garden in the good weather during the evenings. The last fortnight has been slightly damp, almost as if summer has been cancelled. Hopefully, it’ll pick up soon so I can get back out there.
The picture is one of the lockdown cookery attempts I’ve made. This one is a Wagamama recipe Katsu chicken. Very tasty and one of a few new dishes I’ve tried.
June Review – Word Counts
June was the best month so far this year for word counts. Having fallen behind earlier in the year, I had a target of nearly 15,000 words for June. I cleared this with 15,378. Compared to 11,459 in May, this is quite satisfying, especially as June had eight days at 1k+.
June Review – writing projects underway
· ‘Dead Handler’, Book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series, is now 85% edited. This is dragging on quite a bit. I’ve split the last chapter into three as it was far too long. While I’ve increased my pace of editing, I’m still making plodding progress with this.
· ‘Butcher’s Fire’, Book 2 of the Butcher’s Funeral is 2nd in the editing queue.
· The third story in the Butcher’s Funeral series is progressing with a fair degree of rapidity, consuming most of the 15,000 words I wrote in June.
· No progress has been made on the future historical story. I’m also pondering the outlines of a low fantasy series.
June Review – other projects
The short story ‘Let’s Eat Children‘ was posted on the blog in June and has been a hit on Facebook. There were a few requests for more short stories, possibly more stories in this vein. I’ll be looking at tidying up some short stories, including some previously released on the blog, but not currently available.
Sales are continuing to return to pre-Coronavirus levels, with late June close to where things were for me before the lockdown. I’ve continued to work hard on my advertising strategy, trimming out underperforming adverts on Amazon.
Publishing schedule
I’ve delayed several items on the agenda simply as I’m finding the in-depth editing very time-consuming. Until I can figure out how to do it quickly, I’ll have to settle for a lower pace of publication.
· Summer 2020 – ‘Dead Handler’, book 6 of the Royal Zombie Corps series.
· Summer 2020 – Butcher’s Funeral new cover and 2nd edition.
· Autumn 2020 – ‘The Sands of War’, book 7 of the Royal Zombie Corps series. This is the last book in the WWI sequence.
· Winter 2020 – Butcher’s Funeral book two titled ‘Butcher’s Fire’.
July plans
· Finish editing and proof-reading ‘Dead Handler’. Really want this checked off the list as it’s been hanging around for ages.
· Release ‘Dead Handler’ to the ARC readers for final checking.
· Continue writing the first draft of Butcher’s third book.
· Continue to research the new historical series I’m working on. Continue outlining low fantasy story. Not sure how much of a series this one could be.
· Continue to learn about publishing and writing.
· Edit and upload another short story to the blog.